Collecting Castles and Sipping round the world - a WDW half marathon adventure

[roxymama]

Cast of characters:
Roxy (that’s me), late 30’s Disney and running and rundisney addict. Mom of one cute kindergartner and wife of one cute hubby (both of whom stayed home, but don’t feel bad for them as we go back to Florida in April!) Tiki Bird enthusiast.


Kibby (that’s my Dad) age 66. We’ve been best buds my whole life. Former runner (and football and baseball and general sports guy.) Deacon at his church and expert Bingo caller. Sushi connoisseur. Friend of Goofy.



We planned a three day long weekend “budget friendly”, go with the flow, zen adult trip with the main purpose that I’d run the WDW marathon weekend’s half marathon race. In 2017 I ran my first half at Disneyland so I really wanted to “complete the set” by running through Cinderella’s castle at WDW. I went on that Cali adventure with my mom and older sister @AuntieBean

Here’s me with the little castle in California . I’m the blue fairy.


This would be the first time back to WDW for my Dad since 2016 when we took my daughter for her second birthday and rented a vacation house in Orlando.
This spring my mom wanted me to plan her a “one last time” Disney trip and I grabbed a hotel room for this race weekend. It was something to look forward to but we sadly lost my mom to cancer this July.


Thought about canceling the room and eating the race registration fee but my dad said he would “fill in” to be my vacation companion and cheerleader. I put all my energy and emotions into training for my first full marathon in Chicago last Fall and my mom ran with me in spirit. So this little trip with my dad was going to be about us relaxing, smiling, laughing and getting away.

And this is my good friend Adrianne who ran a full marathon in WDW 4 years ago which caused me to run the 5k that year. We decided to run the half together this time! AD is a duck tales enthusiast and does a wicked Mickey voice impression. When she’s not living in the true north (eh) you can find her on the peoplemover.

 

[roxymama]

Table of contents
Cast of Characters/Introduction
Day One, part one: arrival, hotel and race expo
Day One, part two: the magic kingdom and skipper's canteen
Day Two, part one: the Half Marathon Race Recap

 

[rteetz]

Joining in!

 

[roxymama]

Joining in!

Oh good. My next post features the CBJ!

 

[jennamfeo]

Yay! <3

 

[roxymama]

Day One: Planes, Trams, Busses and Vans.
Arrival day, hotel check in, race expo and Magic Kingdom!

We had a very early flight Friday morning. My dad and I are both “ morning people” and we don’t mind waking up early or arriving places early. We’d used points for our flight and we had tsa precheck and good boarding assignments. Now we just needed flight to be on time and winter weather to cooperate, and luckily everything went smoothly.

We made it through security in like 3 minutes and so camped out at the food court and had cereal, coffee and tea until boarding time.


Flight arrived early and we made our way to magic express. My dad walks with a cane and I felt bad that the busses seemed a million miles away. I promised there’d be lots of stopping for breaks on this trip. We were second in our line for our hotel and a few guys with 10k medals were behind us. Guess they’d ran their race that morning and were now starting their hotel vacay. My first reminder that I’d be running my race tomorrow!


Got text our room was ready the moment we got into the bus line.
We got the front seats on the magic express which had good leg room and a nice view. Future bus trips wouldn’t have that same leg room. The driver announced we were stopping at our hotel first. We shared a bus with those staying at Pop. But we were staying at the Art of Animation!!


First time staying at a Value resort for us. We’ve done literally every other kind of room (off-site, Disney springs, deluxe, moderate, dvc suite.)

It was a long walk back to the little mermaid buildings but at least the hotel was fun to look at!




Loved these guys and yes they yelled “mine!” at us.


Our room opened with our bands. And we took a rest and I unpacked. Loved the bathtub grotto!!!


The room was cute and I think my daughter would have gotten a kick out of it. I realize I didn’t take a ton of room pics but my dad did so I may hit him up for a trip report addendum at the end to show you more room pics

We decided to try a “short cut” path to the buses to find the race expo bus to the espn world of sports. I had requested a room “closest to bus transportation” and luckily got that request. Still a hike. Originally our plan was food court lunch and then expo but the hotel food court was SLAMMED as it was near 11:30am. We decided to try our luck at WWOS...I was 90% sure they had a restaurant or food court.

The expo bus literally was pulled up as we got there! My best expo bus timing of any rundisney weekend. I won’t talk about the 60 minute wait for wine n dine expo last year.

And success...there was a grill attached to the expo building!
This turkey sandwich and loaded “mvp tots” hit the spot. Dad talked me into getting the loaded version...good race fuel!!! Dad got a Cuban and we had some drinks. Was perfect.


He held down our table and drinks while I got my race bib (no line) and free shirt (no line.) I also got some body glide since my old tube was out. Body glide is every distance runners best friend and honestly it’s awesome on hot days wearing shorts too.





We decided time to head out to the magic kingdom for a mini park day. I knew there was no direct transportation to the parks from here so I had brought my backpack with a folder to keep my bib nice and straight and planned on us taking a Lyft Minnie Van from here. Best decision ever as it would drop us off at the front gate.

TBC with our magic kingdoms fun and awesome dinner

 

[TeeterTots]

Hooray! I love a good bingo caller! Lol

 

[roxymama]

Yay! <3

Yay indeed!

Hooray! I love a good bingo caller! Lol

He’s the best!

 

[ZellyB]

I’m here!! So excited to read about your trip. I love that you went with your dad too. I’m obsessed with that grotto shower.

Glad your expo experience was good as well.

 

[roxymama]

I’m here!! So excited to read about your trip. I love that you went with your dad too. I’m obsessed with that grotto shower.

Glad your expo experience was good as well.

I may have definitely sang Part of Your World.

We did not hit up the official merch section but that’s mostly to save the miles for walking in the park and because I went a lil overboard on merchandise at my last few races (cough chicago). And bc I plan on going a lil merch happy on our upcoming cruise.

 

[roxymama]

Day one continued...

I was a little unsure of where the Minnie van thought I was but it ended up being really easy once I saw a bunch of them arriving. We found #39 quickly and off we went!


Wasn’t long before our driver was dropping us off at the nearest I think you can get to the front entrance. And surprise!! Christmas decorations were still up


It was a beautiful day in the low 70’s, high 60’s and comfortable. Really got lucky on the park weather all weekend.
I had made some FP in Adventureland and liberty square and dinner res at skippers canteen so we just headed towards Adventureland first. Figure if the parade came by it’d be better to be “trapped” in that area

Stopped for a Castle pic.


You can kind of see my backpack in this pic. I’ll have more pics later. It’s a kingdom cute print. My hubby got me an art print similar to it for our kitchen and I’ve become obsessed with it. I only mention this bc I started receiving compliments and “where’d you get that” questions from cast members and people in line and it never stopped the whole trip.

Our timing had been so good so far (a theme for the trip) that we arrived way sooner than I’d booked our FP for. I was going to move them forward on the app but was having a hard time connecting to WiFi or LTE (and that’d continue a lot this trip.). So we decided to do all the BEST attractions with limited lines. First stop the Enchanted Tiki Room (my favorite thing at Disney) and we literally walked in before the closed doors on a new show.

We followed that up by cutting through the “secret walkway” to Frontierland to see our good friends the Country Bears. Got a primo bench in the waiting room and then walked into the show few min later. Yes we sang Blood on the Saddle...because you have to!!! Tradition.
My dad’s first trip to WDW was on the 7th day it was open. He used one of his admission tickets to see this show and it’s always been a fave.

As we left the show the festival of fantasy parade was rolling by. We were able to watch it as we walked back to our pirates FP. But learned pirates was temporarily down. It seems pirates goes down a lot when I have FP for it. Worse case we’d use the FP on something else but we decided to see if something short was open first. We decided to complete the “shows with no waits” trifecta and walked to monsters inc laugh floor. Don’t make fun of us for our non E-ticket taste in attractions. We are easily amused!

My dad loved it. And best part was they used my joke in the show. In honor of country bears

What do you call a bear in the rain?
A drizzley bear!

We considered peoplemover but the line was kind of massive. Since when has the peoplemover been so popular??? Pirates was back up so we used our FP. First time in awhile I got the back row. Last three trips we got front row and sufficiently drenched. Not this time! My dad’s dad always asks if we finally saw pirates during the day. But we always say no (cause it’s a dark ride....it’s a joke). We called him that trip to give him the bad news that the ride still only happens at night.

We tackled haunted mansion and had a “uh oh, this conveyor belt walkway moves too fast” moment when my dad got in the doom buggy at the literal last second and so I jumped in an empty one. We knew better than attempting another omnimover like that.

And now DINNERTIME. Had an ADR at skippers canteen. Knew it was food we’d like that my kiddo may not. Best part...we were seated in a secret library behind a false bookshelf wall!!

I was digging the dragon booth and fancy fireplace. My Adventureland heart was happy.


And check out the cool dragon map behind my dad.


Normally night before a race I eat pretty light and not overly adventurous. But I wasn’t caring about my race time and we were eating fairly early. We ordered three appetizers and one entree to split. Because we could.

Had falafel and shumai and this shredded pork on corn cake situation. It was so good!
We shared roast pork in like a sweet bbq type sauce that was phenomenal. I had one piece and my dad had the others. Would order again!!



One of my drinks was this bright green melon situation from Thailand. But I also hydrated with plenty of water.


We had a mine train FP but we were pretty tired from the day. I’d walked my dads tootsies off and still had the trek to busses and our hotel room. So we called it a night. Oh and I also had to wake up at 2:30am the next day.
Love the castle at night. We saw happily ever after starting as we exited. Glad to beat the fireworks crowd too.


And the tree was so pretty at night too


Four more pics coming up bc I ran out of room here

 

[roxymama]

As we walked back from the bus to our hotel building we headed through the Lion King Section of AOA. My watch clocked us at 7.31 miles walked for the day!!!






And then I laid out all my race supplies and my running costume so I could post it on the gram and not have to fumble around in the dark the next morning. Can you guess my outfit theme?

 

[rteetz]

Looks like a great first day!

I’m glad we share a love for country bears.

Skipper Canteen looks good. I have yet to try it.

Can’t wait to hear about the half!

 

[SarahDisney]

I am here for this report and excited to hear all about the adventures of the roxy father-daughter trip. Already sounds like you're off to a good start!

 

[TeeterTots]

Super fun first day! I can’t wait to hear how you fly through the HM!!

 

[roxymama]

Super fun first day! I can’t wait to hear how you fly through the HM!!

Coming soon, but I’d definitely classify it less as flying and more as fluttering

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Yay for your trip report!

Totally get why you asked all those questions about Minnie Vans now! Sounds like a successful expo visit and a nice start to the trip at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[michigandergirl]

Yay, I'm here!

Love the Tiki Bird outfit!!! I liked your post on Instagram in case you were wondering who the strange "Sharon" is.

 

[buteraa]

Love the outfit! It's pretty great you got to spend this time with your dad!

 

[PrincessMickey]

Following along!!!